Bloody Sunday families to get £50k compensation

THE families of 13 people killed in Northern Ireland on Bloody Sunday have each been offered £50,000 in compensation.

Families of the victims of the Bloody Sunday shootings march with photos of their relatives in 2010

Paratroopers opened fire on innocent civil rights marchers in Londonderry in 1972.

Thirteen others who were seriously injured have also been offered £50,000 each by the Ministry of Defence in a deal that will cost around £1.3million.

Kate Nash, whose brother William was killed and father Alex injured, said: “My brother cannot be replaced and all the money in the world won’t bring him back.”

A solicitor for one of the families said the offer was derisory and an insult to those killed.

There have been months of discussion between lawyers for the MoD and the families’ legal teams.

My father was in a bunker watching his son die. How, in terms of compensation, could you ever make up for that?

Ms Nash

Ms Nash’s father, Alexander, saw his son William, 19, shot by members of the Parachute Regiment in the city’s Bogside area on January 30 1972, which became known as Bloody Sunday.

He was shot and wounded as he went to help him.

Ms Nash said she was simply interested in accountability. “My father was in a bunker watching his son die. How, in terms of compensation, could you ever make up for that?” she said. Mr Nash died in 1999.

The Saville Report into the shootings was published in 2010, prompting Prime Minister David Cameron to apologise to the families and describe the killings as “unjustified and unjustifiable”.

The report concluded that none of the victims was armed, that soldiers gave no warnings before opening fire and that the shootings were a “catastrophe” for Northern Ireland, leading to increased violence.